STUDENT HAS NEAR-MISS WITH EMPLOYMENT SCAM

Crooks posing as charities trying to lure job-seekers to bogus interviews in Tijuana

A college student from La Costa almost became a victim of a Craigslist scam after applying for a job and then being told he had to go to Tijuana to complete the process.

Nate Dirkmaat, 18, who is on a semester break from Brigham Young University Idaho, answered an ad purporting to be from Habitat for Humanity looking for drivers. It promised pay of $21.50 an hour.

He went for an interview at a Mission Valley coffee shop on March 2, meeting with a man who said he was from the charity. The meeting ended with Dirkmaat being told he would need to go to Mexico for a “tour” before he could be hired.

He thought something was amiss and did not comply. He then told his parents about the odd request and they called Habitat for Humanity and discovered the ad — and the job — were bogus.

“They told us about an incident with another boy,” said the teen’s mother, Lisa Dirkmaat.

In that situation, the applicant answered a similar ad and followed instructions to travel to Tijuana, where he was given a tour of a neighborhood where the home-building charity was supposedly going to work. The applicant grew wary and returned to his SUV to find a group of people in the process of stripping it.

He jumped into the SUV and drove home.

Lori Holt Pfeiler, San Diego’s Habitat for Humanity executive director, said the charity was contacted by that victim as well as three or four others asking about the fake ad.

Pfeiler said Habitat only conducts interviews at its office and does no interviews in Tijuana.

“That’s an interesting twist on a scam because it takes people to another country,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Varnau, who investigates financial crimes. He said he had not heard of this particular Craigslist scam, but was not surprised by it.

Varnau said that if a U.S. citizen gets ripped off in Mexico, local authorities there would have jurisdiction.

“The only thing we can really do about it is to try and keep others from being victimized by getting Craigslist to take down those ads,” Varnau said.

Lisa Dirkmaat said she reported the scam to police and planned to notify Craigslist.

She said the ad her son responded to has been taken down, but she found another one with the same name and number that said it was from the Salvation Army.

That solicitation is also bogus, said Maj. Henry Graciani of the Salvation Army. Like Habitat, Graciani said, his charity would never meet someone anywhere other than the group’s office.

“That’s unfortunate,” Graciani said of the scam. “We are all in the business of making the community better and helping people, not hurting people.”

Although Nate Dirkmaat did not cross the border, he did hand over all of his personal information to the fake interviewer, including copies of his Social Security card, birth certificate, driver’s license and vehicle registration. He has never seen or heard from the man again.

“They could totally open a credit card in his name,” said the teen’s mother, who has since called credit reporting companies to flag her son’s information and notify them if anyone tries to use it.

Varnau said anyone who comes across such an ad should call the charity in question and verify the information before acting on it.